The Fallen Hero Reincarnates as the Demon King's Son
Chapter 71 - 70 - Timer

Chapter 71: Chapter 70 - Timer

Borin, Thorin’s son, went downstairs after a little bit of shock. However, even while he was shocked by his father’s death, he did not look sad. It was the opposite; he had this little smirk at the corner of his lips that was quite strange.

As they started going downstairs, he even began asking questions of the adviser.

"So, I’m the king now? Is that it?"

"Yes..." the adviser replied while shaking his head. "You are."

He looked disappointed and tired, as he could already imagine what kind of things Borin would do, given his nature as a problematic child. If he became king, then the territory would have even more problems than it did right now. It would become a problem without a doubt.

He even giggled slightly as it was confirmed. "That means I can do whatever I want, right?"

"No. That’s not what it means. It means you’ll have more responsibilities than before."

"What?!" He almost shouted out of shock. "What about my father? He didn’t do anything and kept sleeping; can’t I do that?"

The adviser almost looked relieved as he nodded. "Yes, I can handle most things for you. That’s what I did with your father."

"Perfect then, let’s just keep this going. That way I can continue to do whatever I want, and you can continue to work your ass off. That’s great."

The adviser gritted his teeth because of the words used by the teenager; however, that was the reality. He was the one working his ass off while the child was enjoying himself with a bunch of girls every day.

"Can I go now?" Borin asked as he wanted to go back upstairs once he learned that.

"No, you need to mourn the death of your father before the people. How else will they even trust you if you aren’t there?"

"Tsk. Who cares about that? Isn’t that why you’re here?"

"Come with us downstairs. You need to mourn the death of your father."

"Fine..." Borin finally said as he rolled his eyes to the back of his mind.

They got downstairs as Thorin’s body had already been moved inside a coffin, ready to be shown to the rest of the population, who was still shouting from the outside, their complaints reaching the insides of the castle.

Borin wasn’t interested in the least. He didn’t even ask any questions about how he had died, which made Caliste especially angry.

This man was his father; how dare he act this way?

"You could at least show some respect," Caliste couldn’t help but say as Borin’s behavior was simply distasteful.

He had just seen his friend die in his arms, and all his son could find to say was to rejoice at his death. He wanted to punch that kid in the face until he could no longer see; however, he didn’t because it wasn’t his place.

If Thorin had never put him in his place, then he wouldn’t either.

"And who the hell are ya?" Borin asked as he looked toward Caliste. "Who the hell are those two humans, and why are they here?"

"They are here to fix the current problems within the territory."

"What problems are you even talking about?" he asked as the adviser just shook his head, not even bothering to explain the situation.

Nevertheless, Borin and Caliste bickered at one another for a few more moments before stopping at once and exiting the castle with the body of Thorin inside the coffin, sleeping forever.

They opened the castle door and came out while holding onto the coffin, the look in the eyes of everyone changing. They had all been complaining about the king, but it seemed that... he was dead. The king had died, and his son would be taking over.

Many understood what this meant; everyone knew how Borin was. They knew that it would be much worse under him than under the past king, who did nothing but sleep.

One of the guards stepped forward and told everyone to keep calm, saying, "The king is dead. His son, Borin, will be the one taking his place."

"What about the caves and the molten core?! What is he going to do about it?"

The adviser stepped up and gestured with his hands to Caliste and Rachel, who both stood with neutral looks on their faces.

"They are the ones who will fix those problems. They are some of the best talents from the Demonic Academy, and they have vowed to me that they will fix all our problems. Isn’t that right?"

’Vowed? What the hell is this guy talking about? I didn’t vow for anything. I just came here to meet with Liana again. That’s all.’

Still, as everyone’s gaze landed on the two of them, Rachel was the first one to open her mouth as she smiled brightly and said, "Of course! We are here to help all of you with your current problems. We will do our best to fix them."

She had no problem saying that since she had already said that she would let Caliste deal with all those problems. She would only act if he were to ask for her help. However, in the short time that she had spent with Caliste, she had understood that he would never ask for it; his ego was simply too big to do such a thing.

When she saw the gaze that Caliste had just given her, it only made her smirk widen as a result.

"WOOOOH!"

"THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

Cheers erupted.

Everyone was over the moon that something was finally about to be done about this whole situation. However, Caliste was the one who ended up frowning in the middle of all this. He hadn’t signed up for two Hard Quests; he had only done so for one. Why was he suddenly getting dragged into all this?

Caliste turned around toward the adviser, who was just smiling as if all of this was normal.

"Something happened inside the mines in that new tunnel!" a man suddenly uttered from the back of the crowd.

His voice immediately reached Caliste’s ears, who frowned as he immediately asked for everyone to shut up so he could hear more.

"Everyone stop speaking," Caliste ordered. "What happened inside the cave?"

"T-The..." the man looked absolutely panicked; he stuttered over and over again, unable to formulate one normal sentence. "I-It’s the tunnel... all those magic runes all activated at once, and some weird timer appeared at the end of it. It keeps going down!"

Caliste frowned as he immediately forgot about this whole situation with Borin; it seemed that something much more important had just come up.

"Show me."

Caliste headed to the mines with the adviser, Rachel, and the one who had reported the problem. As for the others, they were told to wait outside, and Borin just didn’t give a shit as he went back to his room and finished having fun with the girls he had in there.

"Is it this way?" Caliste asked.

The mines were really dark; it was a good thing that each of them was holding onto a torch, making it possible to see a few meters before them.

The miner nodded at Caliste’s question. "We’re almost there."

Suddenly, as they got closer to the tunnel, the torches were slowly becoming more and more useless as the light surrounding them was getting stronger, and once they reached the tunnel, they were no longer needed. The light being exuded by the magic runes drawn all over those walls was enough to see.

However, what really caught Caliste’s eye was the timer at the end of it.

[6 days, 18 hours, and 54 minutes left]

The timer kept counting down.

"When did that appear?" Caliste asked as he ignored the magic runes for the time being.

"5 hours ago. The timer was originally 1 week, and it’s been going down ever since."

"Do you have any idea what it represents?"

The miner shook his head right away. "All I know is that something strange is happening in the dwarven territory, and someone needs to fix it before it’s too late."

Caliste thanked the miner and started looking at the magic runes that covered all of the walls, wondering what they represented. Nothing came to mind as he looked at them. He had seen magic runes before, but these were unlike anything he had seen in the past.

He looked toward Rachel, who was doing the same as she passed her fingers over the runes, her eyes squinting.

"Any idea what they could be?"

She shook her head. "No... I’ve never seen anything like this. One thing is sure: the person who drew these on those walls was experienced and very talented in magic. Those runes can’t be found in books. Whoever made those created those runes as well."

’A talented mage? Could it be?’ Caliste thought as the clues he started getting kept pointing toward Liana.

There was a good chance that she was the one who had caused all this. At least, that’s what Caliste hoped for.